Babysitters, Boardrooms, and Ballroom Dancing
by newday
Summary: Mokuba is back to being a happy child through the reincarnation of his step-brother, but Kaiba is left with a lot more migraines.Tea is accepted to a prestigious academy, but has no means to pay her tuition. After no nanny wants to work for the Kaiba family and no employer want to hire Tea can the two use each other to fix this problem and others that they didn't know they had.
1. Chapter 1

**PROLOUGE**

**Okay so this is my first story since forever so the flow might be a bit off. I wanted to try to start writing again so this is one of my first stories. As a fourteen year old, I used to write yaoi with terrible grammar, and now as an adult I'm going to try to write actual stories hopefully with better grammar. I want to use fanfiction to help practice my writing skills so I'm just going to use all of my old OTPs from my teen years.**

**BEFORE YOU READ**

**This is a story I'm rewriting from my teens just for the sake of finally finishing it. I'm not such a hardcore fan anymore so some references may be off (by all means if it bothers you please correct me). The story will take place in an ambiguous Japan/USA domino city. Once again I'm not such an Otaku so there won't be too many Japanese cultural references. I'm focusing more on the characters than dueling (sorry).**

**With all that being said, please read and review (Seriously I mean it I want to see how much I've dropped in my year off school). I'm rating it T for now.**

**Obviously I own nothing**

Chapter 1

"I swear all of the employers in Domino City have an ongoing joke not to hire Tea Gardner!" Tea exclaimed loudly as she had read yet another "Sorry but the position has been filled" email. It was her third week of job hunting and so far she had little to no success. After 3 weeks of job hunting she had sent out dozens of applications and had only received 3 unsuccessful call backs. At this rate she would be rejected by every employer in Domino City in a month.

'That's the spirit' she thought to herself. She went over to the whiteboard in her room and crossed off 'Hostess – Cilantro Grill'. She still had 'Receptionist- Lilac Spa' and 'Temp- Scott Grant Firm' to hear back from, but at this point she wasn't hopeful. Money had never been easy to come by for Tea growing up, but now she needed it more than ever.

Graduation was at the end of this year and soon Tea and all her peers would have to go out into the world and make their own path. On Facebook a few people's profile pictures were the logos colleges, universities, and institutions they wanted to get in to. People were posting photographs of their new campuses and the beginnings of their terribly cheap furnishings for their dorm rooms. Tea was one of those people, having acceptance letter as her profile picture. This was why she needed to drastically change her financial situation.

In a last attempt to keep her dance career alive, Tea had decided to go big or go home. Before the beginning of the year when she was narrowing universities to apply to, she fought tooth and nail to try out for the most prestigious dance school in Domino City; The White Crane Contemporary Dance and Ballet Academy. She had called every contact she knew, and harassed every one of her old dance teachers for a reference.

After a month intensely pestering the Academy's office she had been given a special tryout during season when they weren't accepting any dancers. To her surprise she had received a call back, and to her greater surprise she had received an acceptance letter. From then on she had made the decision to not apply to any universities and to commit to dancing.

This was why Tea was in such a financial woe. Unlike school, there were no government loans for dance academies and with the exclusivity of White Crane Tea would have to do more than break open her piggy bank. It was going to be approximately $5000 a year, and that was $5000 more than she or her single mother had to spare. It was her last opportunity to become a dancer and coming up on 18 years of age she was a senior citizen in the dance school world. Most girls got into academies from ages 8-13 with 15 being the absolute latest. At Tea's age she should be an advanced student looking for companies to work in.

Her family and friends were extremely supportive of her. The guys were with her every step of the way. From the beginning with her an Yugi sending long eloquent emails to the Academy, to Tristan and her harassing the receptionist over the phone, to Joey verbally accosting her old dance teachers that hadn't reply to her reference requests and…well in all fairness that hindered things a little, but his heart was in the right place.

Her mother would have preferred her to go to university with the academic scholarships she surely would have gotten, but had always loved to watch her daughter dance. Unfortunately her mom only had enough for one child. Her and her brother knew that, that's why both of them worked their asses off to stay on honor roll. With a 90 plus average they could easily get half of their school paid for, take out a student loan, and have mom cover the rest. Now Tea would still get the same amount from her mom per year, but wouldn't have a scholarship or student loan to help out. Tea wouldn't give up on her dream though.

The White Crane Academy had some of the best dance coaches in the country, and scouts from Tokyo, London, and New York. It was a full time academy most young girls quit school for to commit to, and soon Tea would finish her final year of high school and be able to join next year's troupe… that being if she could afford it.

Tea sighed as she closed her email and went on to open a literature paper she was working on. Even though she wasn't going to university next year she wanted to keep her grades up so that she had some options if something went wrong with dancing. She was more than half way done with 2 weeks to finish it.

It was half way through the first term, although unlike her peers she didn't have the stress of looming rejection from a school to affect her writing. Her finances however, only gave her the patience to punch out words for half an hour before her anxiety cause her to open the local Domino classified ads.

'Maybe there will be some new postings tonight...' She read through the ads looking for ones her experience could cover. She slid right past a "Wanted: Child behaviour expert" one without a second though. Little did she know how that add would be her best shot.

**XXXXXXXXX**

Kaiba inhaled deeply as he put his face in his hands. He sank into his chair as he pushed away from his desk. At that moment his migraine seemed to be the only thing that existed in the world, and it was getting stronger.

It was 10:00 pm and he was almost done his after school shift at Kaiba Corp. He had no meetings, the engineering tests were going smoothly (for once), and sales were steady before the Christmas rush. He should be relatively relaxed and stress free; but whatever deity that was in charge of his life decided that would be too good for him. He had just gotten a call from his head housekeeper, Layla. Mokuba's private school had called again.

It was the third time in the last two weeks Mokuba had been acting up. The private school had been holding him in detention for a while now, and even when he got home the staff had been complaining about his pranks and hyperactivity.

There was only one explanation for this, and his name was Noa.

That's right Kaiba had done it. After being trapped in his game with his backstabbing staff and abusive step father he wanted to forget the whole thing ever happened, but Mokuba of course would never forget or let Kaiba forget about Noa. That was one thing that made Kaiba glad that he had become the serious and miserable person that he was; So that Mokuba didn't have to. His heart and intentions were always pure, and anytime they weren't it was for Kaiba's sake. His little brother had hounded and guilt tripped him on his promise he made to Noa, so Kaiba had made a promise to not half-ass his efforts like he had originally intended to.

Connecting to the old server took quite a bit, but to Seto it was just a great game. He hadn't had a technological challenge like this since he was a child, so he relished in rehashing the old program and looking for the individual bits that held the consciousness of Gozeburo's lost child.

After a year on this special project Kaiba had finally succeeded. Noa had been put into a back-up state of hibernation in case of such an emergency where the virtual world program would be disabled. With the world being designed for Noa, he was the only information that had that ability.

Kaiba was surprised that his Step-father wasn't cocky enough to not prepare for that type of emergency. Even in the weapons business, Gozeburo would have eventually become obsolete. He was so focussed on his success that he didn't plan for the future. If Seto hadn't taken over when he did, there wouldn't be much left for him to inherit as his successor.

So with the engineering branch, top plastic surgeons, a quarter's worth of his revenue that year, and a few organic donors Kaiba had reconstructed his "step- brother's" body. It was a controversial subject in all of the tabloids of course. There was no way that the dead son of a millionaire weapons tycoon being resurrected would be unnoticed. Kaiba's fantastic publicist had managed to swerve it into a life-saving, Kaiba brother reunion as opposed to an un-holy act of a man playing god.

In all honesty to Kaiba he was a little happy this was happening. This meant that his brother was becoming normal. Before Noa arrived in his life, the complaints that Kaiba receive from his private school were Mokuba's depression, skipping meals, and having a general "why bother" attitude. The school's officials were mostly worried about his mental health and his lack of socializing. To be honest many of the children at his school were afraid of him, because of his brother's reputation; the ones that did try to befriend him were often persuaded by their parents as a spineless attempt to gain some form of power. Kaiba had sent Roland and Fuguta many a time to these parents' houses to "have a chat". God have mercy on them if it ever got bad enough that Kaiba himself ever had to show up

On average Mokuba only got at most 30 minutes with his brother a night. He would spend most of his time with whatever nanny Layla had hired, the house staff, and a few friends from school. He was really left by himself a lot. Not to mention the amount of times he had been betrayed by people close to him, kidnapped, or alienated because of his surname. The kid had a right to have issues.

After Noa arrived things exponentially changed. Mokuba became an average 12 year old boy. It was almost as if he had gotten a new lease on life, and Kaiba was grateful that he was regaining some of his innocence. He was pulling pranks, playing video games, laughing, joking, and generally being mischievous. Kaiba was more annoyed than actually worried about him now a day.

Noa on the other hand, was a completely different story. That kid was an anarchist. Kaiba had assumed he would continue to be the matured child he had met the last time, hell they would almost be the same age technically, but after a couple of weeks of living he had returned to the age that he had left off from. 'I guess if I had to choose I'd go back to being a kid' Kaiba rationalized. With that being said, Kaiba's mansion had turned into a tween version of Jackass. Broken windows from balls, 12 grand staircases becoming impromptu skateboard ramps, and he didn't need a reminder of the near heart attacks he had when he heard about the boys using the balcony of the study as a diving board.

Now with all of this he could understand why any sane Nanny would quite. They were professionals who were used to having over privileged kids how went to their rooms to play video games and do drugs, while their parents cheated on each other. As long as they got B's in school the nanny was paid. She wasn't paid to care for the most hyper active 12 year old and his brother Satan.

This was why he found himself in such a dilemma. He had almost gone through every damned Nanny Service in the area, and ones he hadn't used had been warned against it. It was hard enough having to screen these people to make sure they weren't kidnappers or looking to use his brother to gain something, but when he finally found a reputable service they'd quite after the third flour bomb provided by antichrist and spazy. This was why it was recommended to him to search for a "Child Behavioural Specialist" as opposed to a nanny.

Kaiba began to shut down his equipment. It was 10:43, by the time he got home it would be 11:20 and he'd be up at 5:30 to get a little office work done before dropping of the boys and going to class. Somewhere throughout his day he would have to find time to help narrow down the list of applicants for Mokuba and Noa, because he couldn't completely leave an issue this sensitive to any of his staff. As he exited the office he emptied his mind about all his daily stress and thought about how nice his bed would feel.

**END**

**Okay that's all I could do for an intro. Please bear with me guys as I set up the plot. I know a lot of it is cheesy, but it's been a while.**

**As long as there isn't any "kill ur self" reviews I'm actually not too picky. Let me know what you think about the writing.**

**Thank you for taking the time to read.**

**Newday **


	2. The Beginning of a Truce

**Okay chapter 2 is up and running. I've written most of it when I'm free at night so there could be somethings I missed. Hope you guys like it.**

**I obviously don't own anything in Yugioh.**

Chapter 2

Tea awoke to a burning sensation on her abdomen. She instinctively jolted awake trying to defend herself from her attacker. In her haste she had not realized the offending object that she had thrown to the floor was her laptop.

"Shit!" She exclaimed under her breath. She got out of bed to examine the damage. Tea was still in her day clothes with all of her bedroom lights on. She had fallen asleep while viewing ads in bed and the laptop was left to overheat and ruin its battery while burning her skin.

"Oh this is friggin magical". Upon examination the laptop had a large dent on its lid and its screen was blank and unresponsive. "This is the opposite of what I need right now". There was very little chance of Tea being able to buy a new laptop at this time. Not when she was trying to save every penny for dance school. The only blessing she had right now was that she had saved all of her homework to her Dropbox database.

Tea looked over at her digital clock. The characters 2:30 blared in red. There was very little that she could do about the situation now other than curse. She would have to take it to her high school tech department tomorrow and hope that her school's local geek squad could fix it.

Lifting up what was left of her computer, she packed it into her school bag so that she wouldn't forget it. Tea began to undress and change into a tank top and short shorts. She turned off her room lights and went to lie in bed. Unable to fall asleep she was left with her thoughts.

"Of course now I can't fall asleep! Shit, how am I going to afford this?! There's no way I can go through the school year without a laptop. I could borrow my brother's, but in all honesty I'm scared of what I might accidently find in a 16 year old's files." She rolled over on to her side. "I guess I have to just use the school computers until I conjure up the money for my own."

Tea allowed her body to relax as she willed herself to sleep. At this point she didn't have the energy or will power to stay up worrying. That and she needed to be up in 3 and a half hours…

**XXXXXX**

Kaiba's sleep was satisfying but abrupt. He was awoken by the screams of his alarm clock. He left his Egyptian cotton sheets and his king size bed to face the day he had ahead of him.

Within the next half hour Kaiba was dressed, showered, and making his way downstairs for his morning coffee. As he sat down at the breakfast nook, he read the invoice left for him by his house keeper, about his brother.

'Participating in a prank against a supply teacher that involved putty that made flatulent noises' was the crime written down. Kaiba could almost laugh. His brother had become so stress free that he could make jokes like this. He envied him a little.

Although it was nice for him to see that Mokuba was happy, Kaiba wanted to make sure that not of this misbehaviour went on to affect his marks or permanent records too harshly. He was starting to become the class clown and more and more he was in the dean's office.

"Morning brother dearest!" Noa said, a shit eating grin on his face. He cascaded into the into the breakfast nook, putting pop tarts in the toaster and pouring a cup of coffee.

'Coffee is the opposite of what this kid needs' Kaiba thought to himself. He finished checking the changes in the market before closing his laptop. Noa propped himself up on the stool next to him. Kaiba turned to face him clearly unamused.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself this time Noa?" Kaiba asked sternly, but not angrily. This was more of a pain in the ass than an actual problem to Kaiba. In fact the detention sentence the boys would be serving for this would act as a temporary Nanny for them. They'd be supervised for 2 hours while doing their homework.

Noa smiled while sipping his coffee. "Why Kaiba whatever do you mean?"

"Don't start with me today Noa. You know damn well why I'm mad. Aren't you a little too old for silly pranks like this?"

Noa took a bite of his pop tart. "I've been a 10 year old for the past 8 years and am now in a 12 year old's body. I'm not entirely sure what age I should act like."

Kaiba decided to let it go. Ironically even though he was the CEO of what was originally a children's card game, one thing that he didn't have a talent for was childrearing. He didn't have the patience for it. That's what Mokuba's care givers were for. He wouldn't be like Gozeburo and lose his temper with the boys. Adults on the other hand were a different story. Peers and employees alike had seen him turn from icy to vicious if they pestered him enough.

"Look Noa I get that you two are kids, but you're not just anyone's kids. You both have to keep up your marks and appearances for the company; Hell the only reason I'm here today is because the company needed an heir." Kaiba finished his coffee and immediately poured himself another one, with every drop of it building his disposition to where it needed to be today. "Neither of you are being raised like I was; you actually have a chance at having a childhood. On the other hand neither of you have any structure or supervision in your lives, not to mention maturity."

"Well…" Noa finished his sugary mess of a breakfast, "It's like you said, the both of us _are_ 12, and we are having as normal of a childhood as we can." He wiped the crumbs off of his mouth "Besides we go to a private school with a bunch of kids right in our tax bracket who act out worse than us. We fit right in with all the boys."

"The difference is that unlike those little spoiled shits parents I want you and Mokuba to actually have enough sense to learn how to take over the business as opposed hand you money until I die and the company fails in your hands."

Kaiba began to make his way out of the kitchen to wake Mokuba up. His younger brother was known to dispense a knock-out punch to most alarm clocks. As he made his way up the stairs his morning coffee began to kick in, and he began to regain more of his normal icy disposition. As he became more cognitive he became more like his usual self. It was only caffeine deprivation and Mokuba that could make him soften his heart.

He walked through the halls as the staff passed him with the usual "Good morning Master Kaiba". Opening the door slowly he crept into Mokuba's room. His brother was laid out on the floor on top of pillow in front of his Playstation, his 'Duel Monster Combat' video game glared on the screen.

Kaiba walked over to him and crouched down. He brushed some hair from his brother's face and looked at his features. 'Really? No one could check up on him up all night?. Kaiba gently rubbed his shoulders.

"Mokuba you're going to be late".

"Seto?" Mokuba began to stir into consciousness. He propped himself up on his elbows as he began to yawn. "What time is it? Did you just come in from work?"

"Mokuba it's past 6, you need to start getting ready." The older Kaiba helped his brother up. "Why were you on your damn Play Station all night? This is the type of stuff making your marks slip" the older brother chided.

"I was only going to stay on it until you got home" Mokuba protested "I guess I fell asleep"

"No one checked up on you last night?" Kaiba inquired.

"Big brother I'm not a little kid anymore. I don't need the staff to babysit me."

"Well for sure Moki", Kaiba helped his brother up "You're old enough to fall asleep on the floor all by yourself" he teased.

Mokuba pouted "Seto I'm serious. I'm not a little kid anymore; you really don't have to look for another babysitter. They can't keep up with me and Noa because we're basically teenagers now. We have the house staff to drive us and cook for us so we don't need anyone to look after us after school." Mokuba said earnestly.

"You're right," Kaiba said as he left the room for his brother to get ready "because for the next three weeks the school will be supervising you for 2 hours after school."

"Aw come on Seto!"

Kaiba closed the door behind him. He knew Mokuba would be mad at him, but it really was for the best. Other than Roland, Fuguta, or Layla Mokuba didn't have anyone other than himself or Noa who cared enough about him. Kaiba didn't have the time he wished he could give to Mokuba, and couldn't be there to give him enough attention.

Kaiba made his to his room to gather his things before he left. He was already annoyed with the day and it had only just begun. He really wanted as little human interaction as possible until he got back to his bed that night.

**XXXXXX**

Tea walked through the peaceful halls of Domino High. Classes didn't start for another hour and a half, but the school was open from 7:00am for teachers, clubs, sports teams, and students who wanted to come in and study before class. Today Tea was one of those students, and she would be until she could come up with $350. She was still irate about her laptop. It was a high quality one that she had purchased on Boxing Day and had saved 50% off the original price. Now she would have to scavenge for a model that she didn't hate, while trying not to spend any of her savings.

She mad her way to the computer lab in the library. There were only a few students in the school with her. Some were sleeping, some were finishing procrastinated projects, but most were engineering students studying for a midterm today. She made her way to the computers and signed herself in. By the time she finished it was only 7:50. She still had a lot of time before class began.

Her first class of the day was entrepreneurship. This was the only class that she and all of the guys shared. Tea wasn't sure if after dancing if she would want to start a school of her own, so she decided that a business path might be a good idea. Yugi was taking it so that he could succeed his grandfather's shop and Joey was still unsure about what he wanted to do in life. It was Tristan who was the only one who actually had a plan with his education. Through all the years while the guys were busy into their duel monsters, Tristan expanded on his passions. He had a largely popular shooting channel on YouTube, to the point that all of his practice guns were paid for, and he had taken his little known passion for interior design quite far. He would be going to College for a two year program in design. Although often in the background, Tristen and Tea were the only ones with full plans for after high school.

As she walked into the classroom she realised she wasn't alone. Sulking in the back corner of the classroom was everybody's "favourite" millionaire, Seto Kaiba.

Tea and Kaiba were known for their not so friendly banter over the years. Grade wise they were generally marked as 1 and 2 for most classes they shared together, so they were often competing with each other. That and Kaiba's animosity for anyone close to Yugi.

She was still tired from her experience last night and really didn't want to bother with Kaiba. She took her seat and distracted herself with her cellphone. It was successful until a "Not even a good morning Gardner?" was shot at her.

"I really don't have the patience to deal with you today Kaiba." She didn't even turn around to face him. She really just wanted to get through the day.

"Touchy touchy. What's the matter? Was that dog of a friend of yours barking keep you up all night?..." Kaiba said with full humor in his voice.

"Don't go there…" She really didn't need this right now.

"I wouldn't blame him for wanting to hump _your _leg though"

Tea abruptly stood up from her seat and made a B line for Kaiba. He kept the same impassive face.

"Kaiba what the actual hell is your problem today?! You hate when I try to involve you in my 'friendship cheerleader schemes', but when I try to leave you alone you have to be an ass an antagonize me! Seriously what do you want?"

"Well, all I wanted to do was have friendly conversation. Isn't that what you want Gardener? That I join your little group of nerds?" He sat up straight and gave a false smile.

Tea calmed herself to stop from screaming. She really did want to be the bigger person today, but Kaiba wasn't making it easy. In a stern, but serious tone she replied, "No Kaiba, the only time I wanted to include you in things was for your benefit. So you didn't have to be alone all the time."

"Well maybe you should worry about your own life before intruding on someone else's. I'm the CEO of a multimillion dollar company and I haven't even graduated high school yet. I didn't get there by looking to make friends with everyone. If I were like you…"

"You'd be weak, you'd be dependent, and you wouldn't be successful. Yeah yeah Kaiba I get it. You've been pulling the whole I don't need anyone speech since the beginning of high school." Tea rolled her eyes. She was more done with him than anything at this point. She made her way back to her seat, although facing and acknowledging him as they spoke this time.

Kaiba kept a passive face, but his demeanor was drastically less condescending and sarcastic.

"Kaiba I've never done anything vengeful, or wrong to you. I've only ever tried to include you and give you opportunities not to be alone. Maybe it's annoying, but it's only out of whatever kindness and civility I have for you." Kaiba rolled his eyes at this and adopted his often used condescending demeanor.

Tea took a breath and out of weariness finally said "Look, it's our last year together. We have most of the same classes and have to see each other a lot. Can we please just be civil with each other? I really don't have the energy to deal with you now-a-days."

"So I'm expected to believe that you only want to be pleasant acquaintances? No offence Garner, but when someone of your status tries to align themselves with someone of my status it's generally for power. What's in it for you?"

"Peace of mind Kaiba. You are literally that much of an ass some days. I don't want us to send each other candy grams, but with us being in most classes and often partnered together it would be nice not to have to have my guard up all the time." Tea sighed, "Look, we are both adults. We can move past our childish skirmishes. We aren't so different from each other..."

"Gardner don't expect me to see you as an equal"

"I don't. Just be less of an dick to me, please" Tea said sharply

One thing Kaiba did admire about Gardner was the fact that unlike most women she didn't ever quiver in fear, or desire for that matter, around him. Even when he insulted her or her group of friends, she kept the same headstrong attitude. Even the school's bitches and bullies had run from him with their tails between their legs. She was one of the few people that wouldn't change in front of him. If it wasn't for the friends she spent most of her time with Kaiba could almost revel in her company.

"…You are the most bearable out of your little group of friends. I guess it's not a terrible idea, but don't go baking me best friend cookies and all that shit you do with the nerd herd." His face relaxed a bit more as he leaned back into his chair. "It's a truce then"

Tea rolled her eyes at the insult to her friends. "I guess it would be too much for me to ask you to be the bigger person with the guys too?"

"Yes it would. It's your boyfriend's dog and his trusty sidekick who start it most of the time"

Without missing a beat Tea responded with, "Yugi's not my boyfriend". It had become almost a reflex at this point. Lots of people thought that because they were so close that there must be something more going on, but there never was. For sure she had some attraction to Atem at points, but it was never really to Yugi. In all honesty Yugi never really had a big thing for her. He was mostly shy with girls romantically to the point where he could even be bashful with a friend as close as Tea. That's what people often mistook for attraction.

With a glimmer of humor in his eyes Kaiba responded, "Well I guess I can make you a little more equal too me now. It looks like you have some common sense"

"Gee, nice Kaiba; and do you have to always pick Yugi and Joey?"

"The mutt brings it on himself most of the time. Remember this is between us, because I really have no interest in your spirit squad of friends. I can at least relate to you on somewhat of an intellectual level." He muttered under his breath "As scarce as that is".

Tea took a deep breath and finally gave up. "You know what I'll take it. It'll just be you and me."

"Good" Kaiba cut the conversation as the first couple of students made their way into the classroom. Truce or not, friendly morning civilities in front of others weren't his cup of tea.

Tea turned her attention over to Tristan who had walked in early and began to converse with him. Throughout the rest of the day she would see how much easier it would be to go through classes without the regular animosity in the air.

**XXXXXX**

**Th-th-th-that's all folks!**

**I am taking some of the gangs' personal lives from the Japanese series. That's where the gun and interior design come from for Tristan.**

**Just a heads up, I want to write in the romance slowly so you guys will have to be patient with it. I want to build it up. I know I'm slow starting off, but I hate when the romance is rushed. Imma an ols school lover.**

**I tried to have it super proof read this time, but humans are imperfect and I can't afford robots.**

**Until we meet again,**

**-newday **


	3. Lab Partners

**Okayyyyy I know I haven't updated in a long time, but hear me out. I've been really busy with work and sport. I got picked up for a semi pro team (wooooo) so the times after work where I would be writing and brainstorming, I have been practicing; However I seem to have gotten the hang of balancing my life out, so I will be updating more frequently (hopefully)**

**Once again I do not own anything from the YUGIOH franchise or else there would be obvious Azureshipping**

Chapter 3

Tea cheerily made her way into her mid-day advanced physics class along with Tristan and Bakura. It was one of the few classes that she shared with some of the guys. Lunch had just finished so the gang had to split up; lord knows Joey wouldn't be in this class even if he wanted to, and Yugi didn't really have any interest in engineering for the future.

They shared this class with Duke, who was here for the engineering aspect that would surely help him out in his future game endeavors, and another game industry entrepreneur who was much less liked.

Tea hadn't really talked to him since their uneasy acquaintanceship (that's what she would call it) had begun. A few pleasant greeting in the hall or before some of their shared classes was as far as their interactions went.

To be honest, she wasn't even sure if she could trust him at all. At first she was glad that he had accepted her offer to be kind to each other, but it was only after though that she had wised up to become suspicious of how easily he gave in. There was nothing for Kaiba to gain other than friendship from her, and Tea knew that meant Jack-all to the young CEO. For now, however, she would enjoy the lack of jeers and glares directed towards her and even the guys…well accept for Joey, he was quite the instigator himself.

They class settled into their seats ad awaited the teacher's instruction. The advanced classes gave little or no chance of fooling around. Many students were highly competitive in this setting considering that many of them would be looking for early acceptance and scholarships.

It was something that Tea didn't have to worry about too much, but she was going to keep her marks high so that in the worst case scenario she could still go back to school. She took classes that could still keep her options for her University major open and ambiguous. Maybe at most she'd need a few night school classes to catch up before enrollment.

"Okay class, I hope you did the readings last night for this unit. I know it seems easy now, but when we get into heavier material you'll need to have an idea of what I'm talking about before class."

Everyone opened their books to take notes on today's lesson.

"We will be moving on with our dynamics unit by learning about the systems and interactions that exist within…

**XXXXX**

Kaiba was bored out of his mind.

He sat in the back of the classroom diligently typing notes on his laptop. Not about this class of course. He was reading the latest business report published about the gaming industry along with an article summarizing the history of Duel Monsters from its indie game beginnings to the power house of entertainment it had become today. Normally he would only give articles a quick skim over, but this one was rather well written and had been discussed about on major television networks.

Little did the author know about the mind-fuckery and interdimensional hell that accompanied the cards. For business sake he'd keep that little tid-bit between himself and those who had been affected by it. After the last encounter with the cards dark side he had hoped that it would be the end of all the weird shit in his life. He only needed normal stress like running a company before he turned 20. Being a reincarnated high-priest was not something that he was keen on letting unsettle his psyche.

He wondered how it affected his rival, and even more so how he could seem so unaffected by it. He had a piece of his soul ripped out of him by the looks of it; and yet Kaiba had still lost to him once more.

He could care less about how it affected his nerd herd, the cheerleader included. Out of their group of losers he had to admit that he hated her least. He assumed it was, because she had saved Mokuba and expected nothing in return. She was a genuinely kind person. It was inevitable that the world would eventually destroy her. Kind people were stepping stones in the business world.

Kaiba found himself annoyed that he had been distracted from his work for 10 minutes with thoughts of Gardener, and not even good dirty ones. Social outcast or not he wasn't blind. She had a fit dancer's body, and miraculously was able to keep her well-endowed features up top, a rare trait in female athletes.

He smacked his hand on his desk in frustration for succumbing to thoughts about Gardener again. The class and teacher all looked in his direction he didn't bother to lift his head from his computer screen. He would not give them the privilege of his attention.

"Mr. Kaiba is there something that so dire that you need to get out that you had to disturb the class, or may I continue with the Lab groups?"

Kaiba waved his hand in dismissal keeping a bored demeanor as he did it. Mr. Saxena's singling out techniques worked on embarrassing other students. Kaiba wouldn't give him that satisfaction even when he was in the wrong. He instead went on to focus on the gaming industry's business report and keep Gardener out of his head.

"Group 1 Tea Gardener, Andrea Fernandez, Harper Wong, Seto Kaiba"

'_Goddammit!'_

**XXXXX**

"Ugh tough break Tea" Tristan said as he gathered his text books to go converse with his group. "If he starts being a dick let me know."

"I'm sure it'll be fine, he might be civil this time" Tea was still questioning the treaty between her and the loathing billionaire, but she still tried to keep animosity between him and her friends to a minimum. It would make life was easier regardless of falsified pleasantries or not.

"Well you for sure are the biggest optimist I know" Tristan walked over to his group.

Tea went over to where Andrea and Harper had gathered. She noticed that the sulking business man had not moved from his spot. The other two had figured that it would be best not to disturb him.

"So when are you guys' lunches? We could all try to co-ordinate to meet each other in the library, and get this done early and together as opposed to have everyone waiting on each other's' parts." Andrea suggested.

"That sounds like a good plan. The only hitch is having to co-ordinate with mister friendly over there" Harper said. As they looked over they noticed that Kaiba was still glowering at his laptop.

"I can do that" Tea offered. Regardless of their truce, she wasn't afraid of Kaiba like other students were. He annoyed her more than anything. If he tried to refuse to work well with his group, as he often famously did so, Tea would step in and give him a piece of her mind_. _

'_Though now it would have to involve less cursing.'_

"Well as much as I want to see that skirmish, let's use our time to divide the work and then have you tell him at the end of class. That way we don't have to waste our time having him argue and belittle us" Andrea said as she read the guidelines.

It was a basic lab with a basic lab report. It had to be much more elaborate considering this was an advanced class, but the structure was still the same.

With 5 minutes left in class Tea approached Kaiba to give him his part of the work. As she approached his desk, she could see him physically stiffen and glower. As he realised it was her, he relaxed if only slightly and kept his same business man stare on her.

"We divided the work amongst ourselves and are planning to meet up and work on it together so that we don't have to keep redoing it, although I'm pretty sure that's not your style."

"What gave that away" Kaiba said dryly.

"A gut feeling…" He didn't seem amused by her attempt at humor. "So they want you to do parts 2.c. and d. and write out observation-"

"I'm not going to any of the meetings"

Not missing a beat after being cut off "Well than you can be responsible for editing and putting the report together, because we were meeting to avoid that"

Kaiba sighed and rolled his eyes. This was how it normally went. The little high school kids would assume that the sulking CEO could easily be in charge of (and do most of the work for) group assignments. Truth was it was in fact harder for him to do so with all of the actual business and company running he did after school.

"Look I can't meet up with any of you, because I scheduled all of my breaks for last period so that I can go straight from this hell to running my company. I'd rather not have to do the shittiest job of group work by editing a bunch of miscreants reports. I'd most likely end up rewriting it out of sheer disappointment."

"Ah right, the whole genius thing" Tea said rolling her eyes.

"It's also not likely that I'm going to join a Facebook group eith-"

"So what can you do?" It was Tea's turn to interrupt. She was being more patient with Kaiba, but that could only go so far when he was putting like a child.

"Well someone as famous as me obviously can't give out their phone number or email for every group project. There are enough fangirls at the school let alone the ones that would want to buy my personal information."

"Well I'm not letting you hand it to me the day before so that I have to type the entire thing out" Tea was referring to the tactic that Kaiba most often used when in group projects with anyone. Most students were too scared to refuse him. When he had done this to Tea he had put up with about five minutes of her yelling before he abruptly walked away. She almost didn't add his part to the project, but her guilty conscience and Yugi had changed her mind. This time she wasn't so forgiving though.

**XXXXX**

Kaiba thought for a minute. He absolutely was not going to take time out of his day to meet with people. Even if he had the precious time to do so he wouldn't.

Then it came to him. The one trait that he had been chiding before, her kindness, could be used to his advantage. Of the many times she had leverage over him she never used it for any gain. For her sake he really hoped that she never started a business.

'_although I could really care less what happened to her if she did'_ he told himself.

"Here" he handed her his note book "Give me your email and I'll send my parts to you periodically. You can also let me know what direction the group takes with it. I can trust that you will keep my email confidential."

He knew that he took this partnership with her for a reason. He wasn't going soft. This way he wouldn't have to deal with her bitching, and he could basically have her as a secretary to take notes for him at meetings. The way that her eyes lit up at the word "trust", made him realise how easy it could be to manipulate her.

Yugi had always been keen on adding Kaiba to his fellowship of friendship nerds. He could play off of Tea's friendship cheerleader nature to make things smoother for him. He had already noticed significantly less berating from Yugi's back up dancers of entourage. Accept for the mut. No use trying to teach an old dog a new trick.

"You have my word Kaiba you can trust me" The cheerleader broke him from his thoughts.

"I hope that I can… thank you" Little things like that would get him far. All he had to do was tease her with hope.

"You're welcome Kaiba" she said pleasantly. Her attitude had drastically changed in the last couple of minutes.

'_This will be easier than I thought' _He might be able to have fun with this next time he was bored in class, which was often.

"Well I guess I'll see you in calculous" she said cheerily. They did share his last class together.

" I'll see you then…Tea" Much as it physically pained him to say he girl's name he knew that it would get him brownie points with her. If he kept this up he could pair up with her for most group assignments and not have to deal with (and be disappointed by) other students for most of the year.

"Later Kaiba"

**XXXXX**

"Well that wasn't as much yelling as I thought there would be" Tristan had waited for her in the hall "It must be your lucky day"

"You never know" she said walking towards her locker "he might be changing"

"Yeah I doubt it. It takes a lot to go from complete asshole to decent human being"

"Tristan I said I was sarry I broke ya damn Play Station controlla! I'll pay for it when I got tha money!" Joey had joined the group. Bakura had been quietly walking in the background for the time being. He was generally too sweet to get involved with their bashing. He seemed too occupied with his phone.

"I wasn't taking about you Joey, although you better because that was a duel shock. Tea got paired up with the world's richest jackass in engineering"

"I know tha both of ya have a weird thing with my sista, but Duke ain't that bad. If I can forgive you, I can forgive him"

Tristan rolled his eyes, while Tea laughed.

"Whaa?"

"Kaiba bro, she got paired with Kaiba"

"Kaiba?! Hey Tea want me and Tristan to give em a word?" Joey started to roll up his sleeves.

"N-no, you guys don't have to do that" she really didn't want to start any problems with Kaiba especially with how easy he had been able to deal with as of late. He had even called her by her first name. Usually the kindest she got from him saying her surname without the usual animosity. "He was actually being really.." she couldn't say nice or poilite without suspicion "…cooperative. I don't want him to start bitching at me when I have to get his parts."

She still hadn't told the guy s anything about the truce. She couldn't really. It would be an argument about how much trouble Kaiba had caused over the years and she just didn't want to get into that. She had enough of her plate right now.

"Well you just let us know Tea and we'll handle it" Tristan added in.

"I doubt I will guys. You know I can handle _him_ all by myself"

She was still apprehensive about Kaiba opening up, but deep down she hoped that he was finally giving into his loneliness. That he actually wanted to slowly start to have friends other than Mokuba.

**XXXXX**

**Okay there was an update. Let me know how you like it. **

**I know I wrote Joey a little over the top, but as a kid he was my favourite character, accent and all, so I really wanted to keep that, if anything for my own amusement.**

**Once again I'm sorry with how busy I've been. Chapter 4 is coming soon, and I promise to keep a better pace with the chapters**

**Until we meet again**

**-newday**


	4. Scent Hounds

**Hahaha….look who it is; Me. Okay so I know I'm a filthy liar about updating soon. Shame on me. [*inserts typical author excuses*: School, work, sport, occult worship commitments]**

**So this is chapter 4. I'm going to really really try to update soon (hopefully).**

**I do not own anything in the YUGIOH franchise**

**XXXXXXX**

Chapter 4

"Noa get rid of that fucking thing!"

"We've bonded already, the deed is final."

Kaiba had come home early for the first time in a long time, and one of the last times in a long time. It was a rare Saturday that he had the ability to leave work early, and with Christmas season soon it was unlikely that he would have another one anytime in the near future. He was hoping that he could come home and relax, but with the boys there it was foolish for him to have been that optimistic.

In his absence it was apparent that the Kaiba mansion was now home to a dog, and by the looks of it a soon to be large dog. Kaiba had made this discovery when he went to sit and enjoy the couch in his lounge for the first time in a long time only to realize that it was covered in liquid, dog piss to be exact. The perpetrator then revealed himself to be eating a throw cushion in the corner. He almost wanted to go back to work.

"Why does it matter? You're never home anyways" Noa kept his arms around the German shepherd puppy, kissing his head every so often. "You won't even notice he's here. I'll keep it out of your room."

"Noa I'm 3 meters away from you and I can smell the damn mut."

"Take that back! He's not a mut he's a prized purebred! Anyone with taste would know that this pup was worth all $3000"

Kaiba definitely wanted to go back to work again.

"Where in the hell do you get off spending all of that money in the first place!"

"Yes because the 20 grand Blue-eyes stained glass mural in the library was a life essential"

Kaiba pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He was not ready to have Mokuba at this age, let alone the demented child that had tried to murder him years prior. The two of them were old enough to know too much, but still too young to have any damn common sense. Sometimes private school in Europe seemed like a good idea. Every time he would want to visit the boys he would have to take a nice trip to France. A nice idea, but he couldn't do without Mokuba, adolescence and all.

"Winter break is coming up soon anyways so that'll be a good two weeks of us training him"

"Noa I know the both of you well enough to know that neither of you will take care of it."

"Of course we will! Like I could ever neglect this wittle guy" he said kissing the puppy again. The puppy just sat in his arms panting from time to time, too sleepy to bother moving.

"Really, well then tell what happened to your goddamned goldfish; a pet that you only have to see once a fucking day to feed." Kaiba could feel a migraine

"Well obviously it's the goldfish's fault for not being able to keep my attention. I'll notice if this little guy takes a shit, it won't be floating in a bowl" Noa put down the puppy "The vein in your head is very striking today by the way"

Kaiba was full done with the argument at this point. He wanted to look over his stocks and have a rare night where he went to sleep before 10. Exasperated he turned to leave before he exploded. He regained control of himself and coldly and calmly stated "We'll talk about this tomorrow Noa. I don't even think Mokuba can have your back with this one. Enjoy your one night with the dog." Kaiba turned and exited the room, hastily retreating to his room for a long bath and early bed.

"Well won't you feel dumb when we vote 2v1 for the dog…" Kaiba had already left the room, oblivious to Noa's comment.

'_Speaking of Moki, I haven't seen him since this morning…_'

The youngest of the Kaibas had not been seen since breakfast. With all on Noa's preparation to get himself a dog, and all of Kaiba's constant working the two of them did not seem to notice his absence.

_'__I'm sure he's around'_

**XXXXX**

"Ria, I can't live without you-"

"This will be a contender for the most tries scored for South Afri-"

"A peaceful protest was turned violent quickly when government police-"

"Within 30 minutes or it's free!"

"Uhhh there's nothing good on dis things!" Joey exclaimed as he flipped through channels every 3 seconds.

It was 7:00pm on a Saturday night and the gang was at Yugi's house in front of the TV. The gang had all come to the game shop/ Yugi's home to hang out as per usual. They began to get into their usual routine of video games, television, and eating some form of junk food. Tea had come from a full day of dance. She ran classes in the morning with younger students, and had her own 2 hour training session mid-day. Everyone in her studio was ecstatic for her and her move on up to White Crane. Good news travels fast.

"Joey, maybe if you actually waited until you could see what was actually on you could find something you liked" Tea chided. She was sitting crossed legged on the floor braiding her front bangs with Yugi on a throw cushion beside her. Joey was sprawled on Yugi's loveseat and Tristan was upside down on the armchair.

Bakura couldn't make it tonight, because of "prior plans". Tea knew he had a date with a girl from Literature class, but kept it to herself. If Tristan and Joey found out they wouldn't leave the poor boy alone. They might even show up to embarrass him a little. It was how those two, in their own demented way, showed their love for others.

"It's not my fault dat I got higher standads now! Mai's tv gets 800 channels, I'm too high class for just 150!"

Tristan smirked, "Mai's obviously got you on a tight leash Jo, considering you can't even afford basic cable on a 'celebrity' duelist salary. Does she ever let you go home, or when you run out of clothes do you wear hers?"

Joey threw a cushion at him. "Hey don't be jealous, cause I got myself a great woman and you got ya hand!"

The two began one of their regular impromptu wrestling matches on the floor. Tea pushed the coffee table away with her leg to save it from being collateral damage. The boys' limbs were intertwined with Tristan holding Joey in an arm bar "What about your sister's hand?" Joey reversed him and locked him in a full nelson "You sick son of a bitch I will kill you!"

Tea and Yugi continued their conversing not even hearing the bell at the front of the game shop.

"How is training going Tea? Do you think you'll be ready for next year?" Yugi asked earnestly. Tea had been hanging out less with the guys throughout the school year. Between keeping her GPA and upping her training for next year she had little time to herself, let alone the guys.

"It's going good so far. I still have some time until I can go to an academy practice, so if I keep it up then I shouldn't be too far behind them." Currently White Crane Academy was in prime season so next year's recruits weren't allowed to attend anything other than performances. "I still need to decide if I want to be more focused on ballet or contemporary"

Tea got up on to Tristan's vacated armchair so that she didn't get in the way of Idiot Amateur Wrestling. "Well whatever you choose I'm sure you'll do great with it. You always put your heart in everything." Yugi said earnestly.

One thing that Tea could admire was Yugi's optimism. Even now without Atem, Yugi's true strength shined through his good heart. Throughout their crazy adolescence he could always fond the light at the end of the road regardless of undead Egyptians, murder plots, and evil billionaires stealing bodies.

'Evil billionaires' Tea thought 'I have one as a lab partner…'

Since the beginning of their tentative truce Kaiba and she had been completely civil with each other, surprisingly. It had benefited her greatly. Now when the teacher paired or challenged the two of them there was no longer the lingering animosity or passive aggressive (and regular aggressive) attitudes between them. The two even had each other's emails, although Tea was sure it was a work one. Civil or not she doubted that Kaiba shared his personal email with anyone. 'Would he even have a personal email?'

Tea's thoughts and Joey and Tristan's fight were interrupted by Grandpa Moto. "Yugi it seems you have a visitor" he said cheerfully. A familiar face with puppy dog eyes and black bushy hair entered the room; although a little bigger now there was no mistaking who it was.

"Mokuba!"

"Hey guys!"

Yugi got up to greet him with Tea following suit. "How have you been Mokuba? Last time I saw you, you were obviously shorter than me, now we're almost the same height!" It was true that the younger Kaiba had starter to grow into his older brother's frame. This would most likely be one of many growth spurts he would have to catch up to his Seto.

"Haha yeah I know, soon I'll be looking Seto in the eye"

"Naw lil buddy, you'll probably be talla than mista higher than thou" Joey had regained the ability to breathe and talk normally after being released from Tristan's death lock.

Mokuba laughed it off "Aw come on he's not that bad. You should see him when he's sleeping, he almost looks human!" Another change over the years was how Mokuba saw his brother. Now a days he teased his brother, got annoyed with him, and even let Joey insult him, whereas before he worshiped his older brother. The love between them was obviously still there, just between all the teenage hormones.

"Hey as long as his height is tha only thing ya get from him, ya still good in my books"

Even with all of the animosity between the oldest Kaiba and himself, Joey was always soft hearted with Mokuba. He never letting his feelings towards Kaiba get in the way of a friendship with him, none of them had. Through all of these years of Seto Kaiba's iciness the gang had still befriended Mokuba Kaiba; there were even the occasional times where Mokuba could get away from the mansion and hang out with them, although that was rare.

Mokuba sat down next to Yugi on the sofa. The gang resumed their thrilling Saturday night routine which consisted of Television, video games, and eventually ordering take out, but that would happen after they all argued on what to get.

**XXXXXX**

Kaiba abruptly awoke from his nap. He had skimmed over so things for work and tried to go to sleep ridiculously early, but if it wasn't his brothers that stopped him it was his body. It was 11:30 at night, still an early enough time to go to bed for him. He made his way out of his bed with the intent to go to the kitchen. The maids and cooks had already gone home for the night leaving Kaiba to fend for himself. He made a calming cup of tea, much as he constantly craved coffee he was going to sleep decent hours tonight.

He needed something to calm him down considering that he was still worked up over the dog. How had it gotten here? How did no one notice Noa buy it? How did 3 grand go missing from the bank without any alerts? (Billionaire or not, money was money). These were the questions that would irk him for the next few days as he fought with Noa over the dog. Sipping his tea in the hopes that it would calm him down, he started to make his way back to his room. _'At least I don't have to worry about Mokuba like this'. _As much a Mokuba was growing into a teenager, he was still his sweet little brother. At least he could count on that.

Kaiba walked over to the gaming lounge to check if he was there. The boys usually stayed up late watching anime or playing video games. Neither of them was there however. Noa was most likely posted up in his room with the dog in fear that Kaiba might try to snatch it if it left his sight.

_'__Stupid fucking dog'_

Becoming irate again, Kaiba left to find his brother so that he could be in a good mood before he slept. He checked the movie theater, the living room, and the boy's homework room (Mokuba liked to call it his office). It was a big house, it was easier just to check the rooms on the main floor now, as opposed to coming back to them.

Determining that Moki was in his room Kaiba climbed up the grand staircase with one of his lions still decapitated. He really needed to fix that before company came over_. 'I'll remind Layla in the morning'. _Finally arriving to Mokuba's room he slowly opened the door. It was silent, the lights were still on, and the bed was still made. _'Where the hell is he?'_

Kaiba rushed to the next door to Noa's room, bursting in startling both Noa and dog. "Where's Mokuba?" Putting down his controller Noa picked up the whining pup "Look I know you want Samson out of the house, but can you wait to find Mokuba to and argue about it until the morning?"

"Why did you even bother naming it Noa, I told you no. This is my house, what I say is rule, not suggestion. You know what? This isn't even important right now. I can't find my brother, and-"

"-Don't you mean our brother"

"Don't fucking test me right now Noa. Where is he?"

"Well I'll be damned if I know. I haven't seen him since morning" Noa reached over to the coffee table, picking up his cellphone. "How's about we skip screaming through the house looking for him and just call him?"

"I didn't think of that" Kaiba must have been distracted from exhaustion and how irate he was to let that slip, in front of Noa especially.

"Really, you really didn't. Don't you run a multibillion dollar company?" Noa began to dial Mokuba's number. "Can you really blame me for trying to take it from you?"

Kaiba grabbed the cell phone out of his younger "brother's" hands. "Knock it off or I put you and the mut in the back yard". He ignored Noa's reply and listened to the dial tone ring. After several long beeps it went to voice mail. "Mokuba, Noa and I can't find you, please let me know where you are and that you're okay." He called a second and third time just to be sure.

"Why is this such a big deal? Maybe he's asleep in the basement or something"

"It's a big fucking deal, because _my_ brother has been kidnaped many times before!" Kaiba said losing his cool "And I can tell you that it has been by a lot more menacing people that you Noa! These men didn't want his body in-tacked, they were ready to send him back piece by goddamned piece!"

Samson had begun to whimper again, Noa who was lightly shaken up, picked him up and began to stroke him. "Yeah…I guess you're right."

_'__Oh so now he wants to be cooperative and not a brat. Maybe that's why Gozeburo was such a short tempered asshole'_

"I guess we can look for him around the house one more time before we panic, we even have a scent hound" Noa gestured to Samson.

"Noa stop trying to make excuses to keep the dog" Kaiba was tired "Let's just go look for him". He couldn't have one night to relax, could he?

**XXXXXX**

**C'est Fini**

**I originally started writing this chapter while travelling with my team this summer... yeah I'm a piece of shit, I get it. I'm home for the holidays so I'll have a lot more free time to write. Yeah so now excuses. I'm also starting another story, because I'm so responsible with keeping them updated :P**

**Until we meet again,**

**newday**


End file.
